Democratic Party Is Thousands in Debt on D.C. Headquarters

The Democratic National Committee is blaming a late property tax bill on a procedural issue, the latest in a sequence of blunders from the party’s executive leadership.

The DNC owes the District of Columbia more than $300,000 in property taxes, interest and penalties on its flagship headquarters in Washington, D.C., accruing debt over six months. The building itself is valued at $12.1 million.

“The processing issue resulted from standard fraud prevention practices, and we are promptly addressing it,” DNC spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg told USA Today.

Tax records show a $147,000 bill—with $23,000 in late fees—from February 17, with a due date of March 31. The records show someone from the DNC making a property tax payment of $166,700 on July 23, only to have it declined. And on Tuesday, the DNC received a penalty for nonsufficient funds. In total, the organization owed D.C. $313,000 as of Thursday.

This news comes at a time of internal dysfunction at the DNC, as calls for Chairman Ken Martin’s resignation grow louder as the committee is already $18.5 million in debt, still reeling from both a New York Times report detailing a paranoia-driven, phone-throwing outburst by Martin in July, as well as news of a staffer being scammed out of nearly $29,000 by an email from someone pretending to be Martin. It really couldn’t get much worse, especially with massively consequential midterm elections less than three months away. This recent string of events does not inspire hope.

“The question is not whether or not Ken should go,” Leaders We Deserve President David Hogg told The New Republic late last month. “The question is how much longer can we afford to keep him, because this is not sustainable.”

MAGA world is unloading on Ohio Representative Max Miller.

Senator Tim Sheehy tore into the Trump-backed congressman on Thursday, deriding him as a “degenerate sociopath.”

“What kind of person would treat their daughter this way?” Sheehy wrote on X, referring to a recent incident in which Miller allegedly withheld his child’s favorite toy, seemingly out of spite. “This guy is clearly a degenerate sociopath.”

“Max should step aside and seek help,” Sheehy continued. “Staying in this race makes it far more likely we lose this seat and hand Democrats a majority to impeach President Trump.”

Miller stands accused of physically abusing his ex-wife and two-year-old child. Court filings and police reports detail incidents in which Miller allegedly threw his ex-wife against a wall, tossed scalding water on her, and held a gun to her head. Medical records submitted during the couple’s custody dispute also cited several injuries to their young daughter, including a broken collarbone that allegedly occurred during Miller’s care.

Stephanie Grisham, who briefly served as a White House press secretary during Donald Trump’s first term and dated Miller between 2019 and 2020, has also accused him of physical abuse.

The charges have made Miller a remarkably unpopular person, tanking his odds at the polls. Nonetheless, he has refused to back down, insisting on staying in the race through the November election.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Miller told CNN Wednesday.

Trump has similarly refused to peel back his endorsement for the second-term MAGA lawmaker. On Monday, Trump insisted to reporters that Miller is a “good person.”

“I mean I always thought he was a very good person. And I’m going to let the families figure that out,” Trump said. “It’s accusations, and I’m going to let them figure that out.”

The situation has sparked some high tension between Miller and his ultraconservative colleagues, who are also fretting over the possibility of losing their congressional majority.

There seem to be three possible options for the contentious Ohio race: Miller withdraws himself to make way for a new nominee (which he must do by Saturday), or the Ohio Republican Party certifies a replacement nominee, which they would need to do by Monday. Otherwise, Miller will stay on the ballot.

President Donald Trump’s new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thinks the government should know if you’ve had an abortion.

During her confirmation hearing Wednesday, Dr. Erica Schwartz committed to improving “abortion surveillance,” despite advocates’ insistence that federal tracking violates patient privacy and undermines access.

“Abortion surveillance is absolutely a critical component of what the CDC is currently doing,” Schwartz told lawmakers.

“I also want to make sure that certain states are not conflating emergency services and hiding abortions in that emergency services case definition,” she continued. “We need to make sure we’re pulling out true abortions and making sure that we’re really having clear case definitions regarding abortions so the data is actually accurate.”

There is no factual evidence suggesting that states are “hiding” or purposefully misreporting information about abortions to the CDC, HuffPost reported Thursday. The CDC’s data collection on abortion is currently voluntary, meaning that certain states, such as California, New Jersey, and Maryland, don’t report annual abortion numbers to the federal government.

Schwartz’s comment is especially preposterous because in states with abortion bans, the clear case definitions between abortion and emergency services are acutely felt.

Hospitals in states with abortion bans were more likely to violate federal life-saving rules and delay treatment for pregnancy-related emergencies. It’s for this reason that pregnant people living in states with abortion bans face a significantly higher risk of death than those in other areas of the country.

Mini Timmaraju, the president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, released a statement saying that Schwartz’s confirmation “cements an anti-abortion agenda at the center of the CDC’s work, rather than containing outbreaks and keeping the public safe.”

Last month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche promised that he was working with the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the Dobbs decision would become “permanent” nationwide. Now, Schwartz may be part of the push.

The commitment to ramp up abortion monitoring comes also amid a renaissance in dystopian surveillance technology brought on by the Trump administration—and nationwide revolt against such tech.

Ailing Senator Mitch McConnell has been discharged from rehabilitation after being hospitalized nearly two months ago.

“Earlier today, I was discharged from the rehabilitation center to continue my recovery at home. Elaine and I are grateful for the many well wishes and support from friends, colleagues, and Kentuckians, and for the attentive care I’ve received from excellent doctors, nurses, therapists, and hospital staff,” McConnell wrote in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business.”

This is the most significant health update we’ve gotten from McConnell in almost two months, as the 84-year old Republican has been MIA since June 14 when he was found unconscious on the floor of his Washington, D.C. home. After that incident, McConnell was taken to the hospital by ambulance, and his office has released just two photos and a press statement until this announcement. Rumors of his death or incapacitation have swirled the entire time, with his staff offering little clarification.

It’s unclear if McConnell will be returning to work anytime soon, despite warnings from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat.

Donald Trump’s administration is awarding a $150 million contract to give legal representation to immigrant children to a small Texas law firm with ties to the president—where only two of the attorneys actually practice immigration law. 

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, plans to give the contract to the Houston-based Burke Law Group, the Trump administration announced late Tuesday. Marcella Burke, one of the group’s four founders, was previously appointed by Trump to the Senior Executive Service for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department. 

The contract for Burke Law Group was a “single source cooperative agreement,” meaning the firm was selected without a standard bidding process, according to the Associated Press.

Of the 26 attorneys currently employed by Burke Law, only two practice immigration law, per the firm’s website.  

Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, a group providing children legal representation in the Washington, D.C., area, told reporters the group was “clearly unqualified.”

The contract is set to begin on August 15, while the existing contract already expired last Friday, according to the Associated Press. 

ORR officials previously said that they’d offered to extend the existing contract if providers agreed to share information about their clients with the government. But several nonprofit leaders said that the government had requested confidential information about the children and their sponsors, making them concerned that the information would be used to target families during immigration enforcement operations. 

The decision comes as the Trump administration has rapidly expedited the removal of immigrant children. Immigration hearings for children are reportedly being moved up by weeks or even months, making it increasingly difficult for children to obtain legal resources or relief. At the same time, the Trump administration has made it increasingly difficult for immigrant children to be allowed to stay in the United States. Sponsors in the U.S. now face stricter documentation requirements and even risk arrest themselves. 

Immigrant children are often subjected to extended stays with the ORR, during which they can be subjected to all kinds of alleged mistreatment and abuse, either at government shelters or foster homes. 

In June, there were an average of 1,796 children in ORR custody, whose average length of care was 194 days—roughly six months, according to the office’s website.